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Joseph Ellis and Chief Joseph Biney: Founders of Africa’s largest mine after South Africa and propelling Ghana’s economy with Gold
Joseph Ellis and Joseph Biney: Founders of Africa’s largest mine after South Africa and propelling Ghana’s economy with Gold
The Ashanti Goldfields Corporation is a gold mining company based in Ghana that was founded by Joseph Ellis and Joseph Biney both from Cape Coast. The Ashanti Mine, located at Obuasi, 56 km south of Kumasi, has been producing since 1897. During the turn of the century 1900, the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation was among the most important gold mining companies listed at the London Stock Exchange. The mine is sited on one of the world’s major gold deposits and is one of the ten largest in the world.
In 1994, the Ghana government, the majority shareholder, announced plans to sell 20-25 percent of its interest in AGC in a share flotation. The company was listed on the London and Ghana stock exchanges. It was the largest flotation ever organised by any gold mining company coordinating and advisory team alone numbered over 200 people. Each of the company’s 10,000 employees received five free shares.
In 1996 AGC was listed on the New York Stock Exchange to raise new capital, it was the first African company to appear on Wall Street. In 1999, the company succumbed to an ill-executed gold price hedge led by Goldman Sachs, which drove it to the brink of bankruptcy.
In 2004, it merged with AngloGold to create the world’s second-largest gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti company. AngloGold is based in South Africa and majority-owned by Anglo American group.
Over a century after its incorporation, Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited of Accra, Ghana, remains one of the largest producers of gold in the world, achieving an annual gold production of 1.74 million ounces in 2000. It is also Ghana’s largest earner of foreign funds and the only mining operation on the New York and London stock exchanges run by black Africans. Originally operating with a single mine—the Obuasi mine in Ghana’s Ashanti region that gives the company its name—Ashanti has in recent years expanded aggressively throughout Africa and now operates seven mines in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Guinea, and Tanzania. The company also maintains 25 active exploration projects in six African countries and about 20 outside the continent. Ashanti’s most productive mine is Obuasi, which, despite over 100 years of continuous operation, is still one of the top-producing mines in the world and the largest mine in Africa outside South Africa. Conscious of its success on an often volatile and troubled continent, Ashanti prides itself in its relationships with local authorities and traditional political and social institutions in the African countries where it operates. The company has assisted local communities with infrastructure projects such as roadways, water and electricity access, and education.
Early Days
The rich goldfields in the Ashanti region of what is now Ghana were controlled by the powerful Denkyira around the 16th to 17th centuries and later by Adanse which is now part of Ashanti state as far back as the 18th century. The British colonization of Ghana in 1874 and the ensuing Ashanti wars brought a large number of Europeans to the area, and soldiers and travelers spread the word about the region’s legendary gold reserves—”you could pick up gold as you would potatoes,” reported one traveler. Widespread interest opened the region for large-scale commercial gold production. In 1890, Joseph E. Ellis and Chief Joseph E. Biney, Fante merchants from Africa’s Cape Coast, and their accountant Joseph P. Brown negotiated mining concessions for 100 square miles in the Obuasi District. There they opened the Ellis Mine and introduced modern industrial mining techniques to the area. The Ellis mine operated for five years, then the partners sold the concession to Edwin Arthur Smith of the London-based firm Smith and Cade. With the overthrow of the Ashanti king in 1896, the Ashanti protectorate was brought directly under British control, and Cade was given approval to mine the region.
On June 11, 1897, Cade listed the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation Ltd. on the London Stock Exchange and set up operations at Obuasi on December 24 of that same year. The technique of adit mining—wherein a horizontal passage is dug from the earth’s surface into the mine—proscribed by mining engineer John Daw tapped into the most immediately accessible ore in the hills around Obuasi and yielded initially impressive results. The Obuasi mine yielded 2,544 ounces of gold in its first year of operation and 4,673 ounces the second year. This early success, coupled with the devastation of the South African gold trade during the Boer War (1899-1902), fed Ashanti’s rapid growth that continued until the uprising of the Ashanti people against British rule in 1900.
Ellis and Biney had purchased a prime parcel of what was later recognized as one of the world’s greatest orebodies; the Ashanti Gold Belt. Over a century later the mine Ellis and Biney founded has produced in excess of 30 million oz.
Legacy
Joseph Ellis and Joseph Biney were instrumental figures in the history of gold mining in Ghana. They were both from Cape Coast and are best known for founding the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. In 1890, they negotiated a lease for a large mining concession in the Obuasi district. This area turned out to be one of the world’s richest gold deposits, known as the Ashanti Gold Belt.
The Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, established by Ellis and Biney, became one of the most significant gold mining companies in the world. The Obuasi mine, which they started, has been producing gold since 1897 and remains one of the largest gold mines globally. Their efforts laid the foundation for modern gold mining in Ghana, contributing significantly to the country’s economy and its reputation as a major gold producer
